Art and culture can be effective in cementing relations between India and the UK, says British Council boss Scott McDonald

British Council has an ubiquitous presence in the Indian landscape. With a rich and varied history, the council has not only imbricated itself, over the years, into the cultural ecosystem of India, but also in the country's educational system. These were the large themes Scott McDonald addressed in his recent visit to India. Talking to Business Today, McDonald pointed out that it has become ever-more imperative to clarify the important role British Council has been performing in India.

He pointed out that many wrongly assume that British Council is part of the UK government and its role is restricted to an extension of the country's 'soft power' into India. "We are not part of the UK government. Our focus is not so much with government, but to work parallelly with government, aid the government wherever need be, especially in the priority areas British Council is involved in," he clarified.

But what exactly are these priority areas? As McDonald pointed out, British Council operates in India out of three primary clusters: the promotion of arts and culture, the arena of education, and at all levels, be it school, university, or even higher advanced skills training, and finally, in the arena of English, which encompasses both training in the language, and also training teachers to impart better English education to the students.

McDonald, who took over the reins of British Council as its CEO in September of 2021, is quite categorical in noting that at British Council, while the work may involve the three aforementioned priority areas, but at its heart the role British Council plays is that of facilitating collaboration. "We connect people. Through professionals, organisations, initiatives, projects, and other such things, in the UK, with the rest of the world. We bridge, we facilitate, we connect, we bring them together,” he explained.

One other way British Council works as a bridge, as McDonald elucidated, when we consider the role of this organisation in education. As McDonald pointed out, usually when speaking about collaboration in the realm of education between India and the UK, the conversation is usually skewed towards India going to the UK.

“We need to have a longer conversation also on the ways Indian universities and educational institutes can attract great UK talent into India. And, on that front, we work very actively with our Indian partners in advising them, in identifying areas they can work to strengthen themselves, which, in turn, would help in building greater capacities in attracting world-class British talent into Indian educational systems,” he said.

McDonald is also confident that the avenue of building collaborative systems through dialogue, through art and culture, can be a great way to build mutual trust between India and the UK. He cites the example of Indian-UK cultural season, a year-long cultural programme, and which is concluding this month, as one example as to how inter-cultural programmes can build bilateral trust. “This programme is one example which reminds us of the rich and complex history the two countries share and provides us with a pathway to think collaboratively,” he noted.